A Diploma of Policing Management
At the University of the South Pacific, the centre for flexible learning team was awarded a grant by the Vanuatu Policing and Justice Program. The focus of the grant was to develop a programme for the flexible delivery of the Diploma in Policing Management for Vanuatu Police Probationary Officers. The goal of the program was to maximise flexibility for recruits to be able to undertake highly modularised skills-based assessments at a pace that suited their professional and family commitments. I was awarded the contract to lead this exiting project on behalf of USP. And then the borders closed!
Over the next 18 months I worked remotely with the staff at USP, specifically Dr. Andrew McKenzie, Director, Emalus Campus USP, and Julian Lawakeli, Assistant Lecturer, who taught into the program.
In that time, we developed Pathway plansfor the Pacific Policing programmes across the University of the South Pacific. We developed prgression plans and established new entry requirements, as well as recommended study maps for those wanting to complete a range of different study programs, both part-time and full-time.
Flexible online delivery of the program
But perhaps the key activity was to consider how best to move the programme fully online. Much of it was already being delivered through Moodle, but not using online learning methodologies. The aim was to improve the offering, make it more consistent across the 6 core units that made up the Programme. It was also to understand how best to break up the study programs to support the learning of students.
Important for delivering online learning in this context, is to think modularly about courses. Called chunking in educational psychology, it breaks up the learning into more bite-sized study units, enabling students to better engage with the material. The approach is particularly useful for students who may be studying part-time, or who are working in the industry whilst studying.
Training of the staff was conducted online, through Zoom. It was an amazing opportunity to see how the FIT Model for Online Learning, developed in my research over the last 15 years, was able to meet the needs of a different cultural context.
In all this we worked through the pandamic malaise, occasional language and cultural barriers, and the very often unreliable internet! The final Report, The application of the FIT model for Online Learning in the Diploma of Policing Management, was delivered in August of 2022, without once having stepped onto the beautiful Island nation. It was a pleasure to do business with Andrew and the rest of the team at USP.